Wrongful deaths cost taxpayers millions

Saturday

Jun 15, 2013 at 12:01 AMJun 15, 2013 at 11:35 AM

The state of Ohio is partially responsible for the deaths of at least 22 people over the past decade, as measured by cash payments to their family members. The state has paid nearly$13.9 million since 2003 in non-medical, wrongful-death cases before the Ohio Court of Claims, which handles lawsuits against state agencies, institutions and universities, a Dispatch analysis found.

Randy Ludlow, The Columbus Dispatch

The state of Ohio is partially responsible for the deaths of at least 22 people over the past decade, as measured by cash payments to their family members.

The state has paid nearly $13.9 million since 2003 in non-medical, wrongful-death cases before the Ohio Court of Claims, which handles lawsuits against state agencies, institutions and universities, a Dispatch analysis found.

The two largest payouts came in recent months in cases against the Ohio Department of Transportation, the state agency that was sued most often for negligence.

ODOT has been sued 53 times over the past decade, resulting in 11 judgments and settlements totaling $9.8 million owed for traffic deaths. A dozen cases are pending.

The family of a Muskingum County woman killed in 2008 when her car was struck by a falling tree was awarded $4 million by a judge on May 21. Her young son was badly injured. Evidence showed that ODOT employees had known for at least a year that the leaning tree was a hazard but did not remove it.

Six weeks earlier, survivors of a Columbiana County woman were awarded $3.3 million for her 2008 death in a head-on collision in which a truck driver hit potholes, lost control and swerved into her car. ODOT knew about the potholes but failed to fix them, a judge determined.

The agency is studying whether to appeal the two recent court awards, spokesman Steve Faulkner said.

"With 50,000 miles of roadway, 44,000 bridges, miles and miles of bike paths, rail lines and runways on a statewide transportation system that impacts the daily lives of each and every one of Ohio’s 11.5 million residents, mishaps are bound to happen, oftentimes involving circumstances and factors outside of ODOT’s control,” Faulkner said.

John Reichley agreed. He is chief of the Court of Claims defense section in the Ohio attorney general’s office.

“There’s a lot of potential liability for ODOT because there’s an extensive roadway system out there,” Reichley said. Winning a wrongful-death case against the state is a long shot. Of the 79 cases resolved since 2003, 72 percent were dismissed or resulted in judgments in favor of state agencies. Of the 22 cases that plaintiffs won, only five went to trial. Although denying wrongdoing, the state settled the 17 other cases.

The state receives protection in the Court of Claims that doesn’t exist in other trial courts. For example, claims must be filed within two years of the death; awards are reduced by the amount of money the family gets from other sources, such as insurance proceeds; and pain-and-suffering damages against public universities are capped at $250,000.

In the only successful non-medical, wrongful-death claim against a university since 2003, the family of an Ohio State University freshman received a $1 million settlement after he was crushed by a faulty residence-hall elevator.

No national figures are available for state claims courts, but a federal study found that judgments in excess of $1 million are unusual in all trial courts nationwide. Only about 4 percent of civil suits, for all classes of claims, result in awards of more than $1 million.

The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction was the second-most-sued state agency over the past decade. Inmate deaths resulted in 19 cases and four settlements totaling $284,750. Six cases are pending.

Dollarwise, the State Highway Patrol ranked second in damage awards. Three cases resulted in $2.5 million in settlements paid to the families of two people killed in crashes with troopers’ cruisers, and of a drunken driver who was struck and killed by a vehicle while walking along a road after a trooper had released him from custody.

Columbus lawyer Paul O. Scott, who helped secure a $1 million settlement for the family of a Gallia County woman who died with two troopers in a 2006 crash, said the accountability accompanying wrongful-death lawsuits is more important than the money.

“If you could open the door to the courthouse and the loved one would walk in, you would leave all the money behind,” he said. “There’s never enough money in the world to replace that loved one. All that money does is provide a little independence and an opportunity to do some good for folks."

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow

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